TY - JOUR

T1 - Introduction to Felipe Ehrenberg's "In Search of a Model for Life"

AU - Benezra, Karen

PY - 2012/2/1

Y1 - 2012/2/1

N2 - “In Search of a Model for Life” traces a brief history of the autonomous, experimental art movement known as los Grupos (the Groups) in which the essay’s author, Felipe Ehrenberg, played a central role. Based mostly in Mexico City in the late 1970s, the Groups critiqued the predominant academicism as well as the burgeoning support for commercially viable experimental work in Mexico’s state-run art institutions. “In Search of a Model for Life” first appeared as one of three external appendices to the catalog for the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil’s 1985 retrospective of the Groups, De los Grupos los individuos (From the Groups, Individuals). Ehrenberg’s essay challenges the teleological narrative that the catalog’s text traces, from a collective movement of rebellion to the individual insertion of the movement’s members into the art market. In doing so, “In Search of a Model for Life” begins to theorize the conditions for a critical and emancipatory art practice beyond the complicity of state and market.

AB - “In Search of a Model for Life” traces a brief history of the autonomous, experimental art movement known as los Grupos (the Groups) in which the essay’s author, Felipe Ehrenberg, played a central role. Based mostly in Mexico City in the late 1970s, the Groups critiqued the predominant academicism as well as the burgeoning support for commercially viable experimental work in Mexico’s state-run art institutions. “In Search of a Model for Life” first appeared as one of three external appendices to the catalog for the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil’s 1985 retrospective of the Groups, De los Grupos los individuos (From the Groups, Individuals). Ehrenberg’s essay challenges the teleological narrative that the catalog’s text traces, from a collective movement of rebellion to the individual insertion of the movement’s members into the art market. In doing so, “In Search of a Model for Life” begins to theorize the conditions for a critical and emancipatory art practice beyond the complicity of state and market.

KW - 20th century Argentinean art

KW - Avant-garde

KW - Grupo Arte de los Medios

KW - Instituto Torcuato Di Tella

KW - Materialist aesthetics

KW - Oscar Bony

KW - Oscar Masotta

KW - Science of art

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84953857042&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1162/ARTM_a_00012

DO - 10.1162/ARTM_a_00012

M3 - Other (editorial matter etc.)

AN - SCOPUS:84953857042

VL - 1

SP - 120

EP - 124

JO - ARTMargins

JF - ARTMargins

SN - 2162-2574

IS - 1

ER -